Published: January 14, 1996

Correction Appended

They are the great steel strands that linked New York City to the nation's Northeast corridor and, in the process, helped wed the region to the car and suburbanization.

Six of the metropolitan area's major bridges were designed by one man -- Othmar H. Ammann (1879-1965) -- and an exhibit running from Jan. 25 to April 19 at the PaineWebber Art Gallery in Manhattan will illustrate the contributions of the man who designed all six: George Washington, Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck, Bayonne and Verrazano-Narrows.

Until 1923, when Ammann made his proposal to bridge the Hudson, all other proposals emphasized rail service," said Darl Rastorfer, the exhibit's curator. "His scheme recognized the emerging importance of vehicular traffic. And each of his other major bridges would also be links to the Northeast's evolving highway system."

Without those bridges, Mr. Rastorfer said, New York City's "prominence would have been eclipsed by some other city."

The free exhibit includes photographs of the bridges while under construction, architectural renderings, diagrams of architectural principles and historic film footage.

The exhibit is scheduled to be open from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., Mondays through Fridays, on the ground floor of the PaineWebber building, at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, between 51st and 52d Streets.

Photo: Othmar H. Ammann (above) designed six major bridges in themetropolitan area. Material relating to the Triborough Bridge (right) is part of an exhibit opening Jan. 25. (Courtesy of Dr. Margot Ammann Durrer)

Correction: January 21, 1996, Sunday A report in the Postings column last Sunday about an exhibition on the six bridges around Manhattan designed by Othmar H. Ammann omitted the name of the museum that collaborated with the Paine Webber Art Gallery on the show. It was the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.